In most of my dragonfly shots the dragonfly is perched on an upright object, so, for variety, I decided to post this shot of a male Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly (Erythemis simplicicollis) in a different position—posing on a lily pad.
The dragonfly made multiple touch-and-go landings on this lily pad, sometimes landing near the edge, as in the first image, and sometimes in the middle, as in the second image. I couldn’t tell if he was using the lily pad as a platform for hunting insects or was merely resting. (It seems to me that it would be more advantageous for hunting to be higher up, unless you are hunting aquatic insects, which didn’t seem to be the case here.)
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
beautiful image, thanks for sharing
Lovely
I like these shots. Are we seeing through the water to the pond bottom? The surroundings of the lily pad are very unusual.
The water was really shallow in the area where I took the shots, so we may be seeing the bottom of the little pond.